this one is for you codie

everyone who sees this pictures says "he looks like the little boy from a Christmas Story". i knew you could appreciate the truth in that statement....SO FUNNY!

I MISS YOU!!!

christmas in mississippi....our true red neck revived!

after we finished doing ho ho with monkey, cleaned up the aftermath and let monkey play for a while we all showered and packed to head to the camp house in mississippi to have christmas with gavin's family. my parents headed back to GA and headed to "the woods". the camp house is basically a fancy deer camp outside of columbus, ms. that gavin's family owns and it's a place where the whole family can gather and enjoy each other! the men hunt, the women hang out and the kids run like wild banshees...it's a blast! i would consider myself a "city slicker" until i married into this family...you learn to relax, be muddy, wear camo and deal with the fact that you're fighting a loosing battle to keep a gun out of your precious child's hand...anyway back to christmas...we arrive at the camp house to complete chaos as usual but it's kind of fun because there no pressure to be polite, use fancy dinnerware, eat with the right utensils ect. everyone is just there and it's sort of survival of the fittest... we ate a BIG christmas dinner then everyone converged on the living room and opened gifts....monkey got a lot of gifts included his new bedding for his big boy bed. i got my dishes that i wanted from pottery barn and gavin got his new Browning bedding for our room that he's redoing at the camp house. after that it was pretty much a free for all the rest of the weekend. my son played in the mud, road every atv possible anything he wanted to do i let him because that's what happens at the camp house....he even went and shot guns with daddy!! HEART ATTACK!!! i'm learning to just pray very very hard because i know it is inevitable!! we stayed at the camp house through the weekend and everyone had a blast! this christmas was the best ever but i'm sure they will get better every year! i am looking forward to it!

this weekend i will have to take all my christmas stuff down put all monkey's new stuff in his room and purge the old....christmas is over for this year but it will be here again before we know it!

below are the pictures i took at the camp house on my new camera
*WARNING: THERE ARE A LOT OF PICTURES SO TAKE YOUR TIME!

2008-12-29 christmas2008

HO HOS AND BLACK EYES.....

well it's over....Christmas has come and gone another year! what a wonderful Christmas it was though! the best so far!!

i know it's been a while because i have been SUPER busy but finally some time to do mommy stuff!! first we started the 20th of Dec. with my dad's family in alabama...we ate lots of good food and played dirty santa. monkey enjoyed opening presents but unlike last year he actually enjoyed the gift instead of just the paper! then we had a few days off before it started all over again! wednesday morning we got up while daddy went to work and started cleaning like crazy!! my house smelled like lavender pine sol all day long!!! around three o'clock i started my adventure of cooking christmas eve dinner for the second year in a row (my new tradition as a housewife!) shortly after that i hear the pitter patter of little feet running through the living room..I say "monkey stop running and pick up your books before you fall"...as usual he ignores me and makes another lap around the kitchen and starts into the living room (he was hopped up on candy and other christmas goodies) the next sound i hear is that of a screaming 2 year old...i put the kitchen towel down and slowly walk around the corner bracing myself for what was laying in the floor! possibly a bloody forehead. to my surprise there was blood but very little...all he needed was a little love and he was fine. at 4:00 my parents and grandparents arrived and i finished my big meal while everyone sat around listening to christmas music and watching football. at 6:00 we sat down to a meal of ham, tenderloin, green bean casserole and potato casserole. the meal was delicious and everyone was stuffed!! next all the adults gathered in the living room to exchange gifts. gavin and i got our new rug from my parents as well as a great new set of knives and a new crock pot....stuff that we NEEDED and enjoy getting once you are married and old. gavin and i got my mom a new cell phone and my dad a fire pit for the back deck. next gavin and i exchanged our gifts from each other...i was SHOCKED to open my new camera!!! i asked for a new SLR digital camera last year so gavin would have a whole year to save but i had pretty much decided this year wouldn't be the year either since the cameras are about $600 and gavin kept saying "money is tight". he of course as usual being the MOST wonderful husband that he is surprised me and I GOT MY NEW CAMERA AND I LOVE IT!!! he wanted all new hunting stuff so that's what he got from me and was happy with every bit of it! BORING!!! anyway after all the commotion we put my monkey to bed and "helped" santa put together all of monkey's toys for the next morning....everyone was up by 7 am and monkey was surprised and thrilled to see that santa brought him a HOME DEPOT TOOL BENCH....plus a lot of other stuff that he was not interested in!!! you can never really appreciate Christmas until you experience Christmas morning with your own child! it gets better every year!!! I hope everyone's Christmas was as joyful as ours....

below are some pictures taken on my mom's camera of Christmas eve night and Santa...

Pictures

short and sweet...

sick baby...no sleep!!!

ughhh!!!

mmm....mmmm......GOOD!

well tonight my monkey and i are home alone again...it's hunting season!! my hubby headed towards mississippi to duck hunt for the rest of the week and weekend. i miss him when he goes but i do enjoy the one on one time with my monkey! we came home and took a long nap then i turned on nemo and we are on our second viewing of the afternoon. we got out ALL the books and read for a while then at 5:30 i decided i wanted to go ahead a eat an early dinner so i could get all my chores done and be in the bed as soon as my monkey goes down for the night. i have some cleaning to do as well as laundry and packing for my trip to ATL tomorrow to see the fam. anyway back to dinner, i decided that i wanted a big bowl of old fashion tomato soup. i had a can of Campbell's healthy request tomato soup in the pantry so i made my monkey and i a grilled cheese sandwich and we had the best time dipping our grilled cheese and crackers in a yummy warm bowl of tomato soup. i forgot how hearty and tasty tomato soup was! IT WAS DELICIOUS! i love that my monkey will eat anything you put in front of him! he is not picky at all, it's such a blessing that dinner time is never stressful at my house! i actually think that our dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup was my second favorite thing about today besides our chick-fil-a breakfast this morning as a family before daddy headed out! life is good and i love that a big bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich can remind you of how truly blessed we are to have an amazing two year old!!

one more thing!

i got all my christmas decorations up the sunday after thanksgiving and i am very pleased with all of it this year. i amaze myself every year with what my mind comes up with because i do not have a designer bone in my body! i like to be non-traditional as far as christmas is concerned because i never liked the idea of green and red together! this year i did my tree in lime green, turquoise, and brown with birds and peacock feathers as well as my gorgeous peacock perched on top of my tree! i also said i would not do a john deer tree for monkey because i hate the green and yellow but my boss gives monkey a john deer ornament every year for christmas so i sucked it up and tried it. i was actually please with how it turned out too! i had to downsize on his tree and put it way up high so he wouldn't destroy it! enjoy


click below to see the pictures of my decor and mack's tree! also the last two pictures are the ones we used on our christmas card this year..my wonderful friend came and took almost 200 pictures of us for me but these are the two i chose!

2008-12-09 thanksgiving

TIS' THE SEASON...FOR CRAZINESS!!

hello all!
i know it's been a while! i've missed updating everyone because we've been so busy and had so much wonderful stuff going on! but with all that stuff comes craziness, sickness, insomnia, you get the point! first of all let me back track a few weeks to thanksgiving. we went to see Gavin's dad and his family in baton rouge. this is a new tradition we started with mack last year....we only get to see them once a year so that will be our standing thanksgiving plans for eternity!. we love going to the farm. mack gets to be a boy, daddy gets to hunt, and mommy gets to relax! it was a wonderful trip..thursday (thanksgiving day) gavin's sister vanessa her hubby mark and their precious son andrew came to the farm and the boys had a great time running papaw all over creation on any atv that would go! of course like with any holiday we ate way too much but the food was delicious! gavin's aunt anne is just wonderful and works so hard to make sure everything is perfect and she never fails us! gavin's cousin rosie was in town this year from new york and it was a pleasure to finally meet her!~the trip was just wonderful and i know papaw and mamay were thrilled to see mack and we can't wait to do it again next year!

another fun thing that happened while i was on hiatus was taking mack and cooper to see ho ho on the choo choo! margie and i decided to take the kids to ride the polar express to see santa instead of standing in a mall line for two hours and getting a bad picture! we went down to the train museum in calera in their jammies where we boarded the "polar express" an actual 1950s era passenger train, they listen to the story of the polar express while we rode through the winter wonderland(calera) to the north pole. santa and his elf boarded the train gave out milk, cookies, jingle bells, polar bears and took pictures! the trip was amazing! i thought when we first arrived and the kids were going crazy and then we had to stand in line in the cold to board the train that margie and i were actually the crazy ones but the look on those babies faces when that train pulled up was priceless and made the trip worth every penny, stressed nerve and runny nose!! margie and coop thanks again for joining us!!! i hope that this can be one tradition that will last a few years for the boys!!

sorry for the break but i think everyone is pretty much updated...


click below to see all the pictures from our thanksgiving trip as well as the polar express!

2008-12-01 thanksgiving